Arizona's Historic and Unique Hotels

By Dr. Diane Holloway Cheney

The criteria for designation as an American Historic Hotel is to be at least fifty-years-old. The first ten hotels are Historic and the next seventeen are notable for unique features.

Arizona is a unique state with characteristics not found elsewhere in America or the world. There are beautiful natural wonders such as the Grand Canyon, early Western history is recreated at dude ranches, and there are even historic “treatment” facilities such as the Castle Hot Springs Resort.

Historic hotels capture earlier times. This comprehensive guide describes rooms, rates, and amenities. It includes details of movie locations, famous guests, and notable recipes. This history of Arizona includes hotels famous for the “Five C’s of Arizona:” Cattle, Citrus, Climate, Copper, Cotton, and even an extra C for Convalescence since doctors prescribed a visit to Arizona as treatment for many ailments. Guests armed with this knowledge can better enjoy their visit to all parts of Arizona.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662932588

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

BRIGHT ANGEL LODGE AT GRAND CANYON

For me, the best places to write are not hotel rooms but hotel lobbies.

Norwegian author Jo Nesbo who wrote the Harry Hole series.

HISTORY

HISTORIC NOTE: THIS hotel was built in 1935 and designed by famed architect Mary E. J. Colter. It has a presidential suite, art work, tours can be arranged, and memorabilia. This is the check-in point for Grand Canyon mule rides. The lobby of this old hotel is very unique as will be described later. The hotel has been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2012.

Mary Jane Colter

Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter was born April 4, 1869, six years before Englishman Fred Harvey came to American and opened his first eating house. She was the daughter of Irish immigrants who lived in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father ran a clothing store, and her mother was a milliner who designed hats and repaired garments.

A family member gave Mary’s father some drawings made by Sioux prisoners in Fort Keogh. The Sioux, led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, had killed Colonel George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876. Mary kept those pictures throughout her life and finally donated them to the Custer Battlefield Monument in 1954. They undoubtedly had some influence over her and her love of Indians and their way of life, which she depicted in her art and creations of their lifestyle. She helped the public come to love America’s Indian heritage, when most other countries had older and very different ancestors. She saw value in America’s heritage.

Her father died when she was 17 and she had to assume full responsibility for her mother and sickly older sister. She began to train for a teaching career in the California School of Design in San Francisco. She became involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement from 1880 to 1910 and took pride as a master craftswoman working with her hands developing beautiful works which also had a useful life. She had no interest in something that was just pretty—it had to be useful.

She began to teach in a high school from 1892 to 1902. Her own school was chosen to develop an exhibit for the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. It was this background which brought her to the attention of the Harvey Company. The Fred Harvey contract to bring more revenue to railroads by better eating places and sales of native arts required someone very knowledgeable in what might sell.

Colter’s career catapulted when she was hired full time as a Fred Harvey Company architect and designer in 1910. She even eventually designed the clothing for Harvey Girls to wear to work and the china used for dining onboard trains. It was unusual for young girls to work in the early 1900s and to travel away from family as much as they did. Mary was exceptional and extremely shrewd in a time when few women were trained to help make a profit for a company.

She was much more dauntless than Fred Harvey’s usual female employees. Harvey girls were waitresses who were given protection by a matron and trained to perform their chores in a dormitory. Parents trusted that their daughter would be well-treated by the railway, hotels, and restaurants where employed.

Fred Harvey brought a philosophy to America that his home country did not have—the customer is always right. He had his waitresses trained so that if one of them made a mistake, all Harvey Girls and Harvey establishments would be blamed. Thus, excellent service was provided by the girls. Mary Colter understood that philosophy because that was how she came to develop arts and crafts that people could use instead of just admire. She wanted to please her customers and users of her crafts.

After proving herself at other locations and Fred Harvey hotels and restaurants, Mary Colter chose be an architect. This brilliant, shy, young woman discarded a private life where she might have been a wife and mother. She never married and gave her life to her work. Mary developed a fondness for certain Indian jewelry and was often identified in old photographs by those works of art which she wore.

Fred Harvey’s managers trusted Colter’s instincts. She designed about half of the buildings at Grand Canyon Village, including Hopi House, Bright Angel Lodge, Lookout Studio, Hermit’s Rest, the Desert View Watchtower and Phantom Ranch cabins at the base of the Canyon on the Colorado River. She also built a men’s dormitory called Victor, and a women’s dorm called Colter Hall for the Harvey Girls behind El Tovar, and it serves as employee housing today. She made money for the Fred Harvey Company and that continued until the 1929 stock market crash.

Mary Colter designed Hermit’s Rest to resemble a dwelling constructed by an untrained mountain man with a haphazard looking structure of stone and wood. The building had been a rest stop for the short stage line that ran from this location to a few miles west of Hopi House at El Tovar. The entrance has a small stone arch topped with a broken bell that Colter acquired from a Spanish mission in New Mexico. Stone lanterns illuminate the area after dark. She loved to research special artifacts which had history, use, and beauty.

It was built to include a main room and snack bar. The original stone fireplace is notable because Colter had workers darken the stones to make it look as if the hearth had been used for many years. Her research about how early people had built things was used to good advantage when she made things look very ancient. She understood that there is something in human nature that makes us want to know and identify with our origins. We want to know where we came from and how we managed to get to where we are.

Mary Colter’s Lookout Studio at the Grand Canyon was to be a place where visitors could photograph the gorgeous canyon from the earliest brilliant morning light to the gorgeous late sunsets. She wanted people to use telescopes to observe the canyon. Her studio was created to look like the ruins of ancient Puebloan dwellings which she had observed in the area. The interior was on several levels with many windows for viewing. She was so adept that it almost seemed as if the building grew out of the rocks at the canyon rim.

A small stairway leads up to the enclosed observation tower and down from the building’s main level to an exit that opens for an exterior observation area. The ceiling of saplings has been covered but the viga wood rafters remain exposed. Fluorescent lights provide additional internal lighting. Colter understood lighting and the properties of aging wood so very well.

One of her magnum opuses at the Grand Canyon was her Desert View Watchtower. This is a 70-foot-high stone building some 20 miles east of the main Grand Canyon Village. The four-story structure was not completed until 1932 with interior murals by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie. It was the last of her structures at the Grand Canyon until she renovated Bright Angel Lodge in 1935.

Mary Colter spent six months researching archaeological sites before building a clay model of the watchtower. Before the final design was completed, she had a 70-foot platform built to assess the views from the second story windows of the proposed watchtower. Then she selected Hopi artists Fred Kabotie and Fred Geary to decorate the interior. Artist Geary’s rock art paintings were copies of petroglyphs at Abo, New Mexico, which have since been destroyed so this is their only representation.

In 1933, Mary Colter wrote her own manual for Watchtower guides for visitors there. It is entitled, The Indian Watchtower at Desert View and its Relation, Architecturally, to the Prehistoric Ruins of the Southwest. She described the current conditions of the Abo rock art that her Fred Harvey cohort, Herman Schweitzer, found in 1908. From the back cover: Dear boys . . . was the salutation of Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter used in her Manual for Drivers and Guides, written for the men who drove tourists out to the Watchtower at Desert View on the East Rim of Grand Canyon in the 1930s.

The Manual, now back in print, was Colter’s response to questions about the sweeping 360-degree view from the 70-foot-tall Watchtower. In the pages of the Manual, we gain a rare glimpse in her own words of what inspired each masterful stroke of her design. Today, visitors to the Desert View Watchtower can appreciate the perfection Mary Jane Colter demanded, view murals painted by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie on the interior walls and admire one of her signature creations.

Colter served as chief architect and decorator for the Fred Harvey Company. As one of the country’s few female architects and perhaps the most outstanding, she often worked in rugged conditions to complete 21 landmark hotels, commercial lodges, and public spaces for the Fred Harvey Company.

Fred Harvey developed the West along the Santa Fe’s main route through restaurant efficiency, pretty young female waitresses, high-end tourism, and quality souvenirs. His anthropologists located the most appealing Native American art and artifacts like pottery, jewelry, and leatherwork for customers. Colter produced architecture with striking décor, based on authentic sites she visited, often using a playful sense of the dramatic in her off-beat creations.

A few hundred feet away from El Tovar, Colter’s Bright Angel Lodge contains a central lodge building surrounded by a complex of cabins. The rustic lodge is aimed at a middle-class market. The stone fireplace in the lodge reproduced the strata found in the Grand Canyon along the Bright Angel Trail in the correct sequence from bottom to top.

This Geological Fireplace has a base of dark-colored Vishnu Schist. This granite-veined rock—dated at around 1.7 billion years old—forms the very basement of the North American continent. The next layer of rock represents the Grand Canyon Supergroup –sedimentary and volcanic rocks ranging in age from 800 million to 1.2 billion years old; their tilted appearance caused by the separation of ancient continents. Above the fireplace opening is a distinctive layer of flat-lying sedimentary rocks that gives the Grand Canyon its stairstep appearance and dated from half a million to 250 million years in age.

Some of the youngest rocks are found at the top of the fireplace. That band of light-colored stone completes the geologic timeline of the Grand Canyon. Known as the Kaibab Formation, this limestone rock is a mere 270 million years old and is visible along much of the canyon’s rim.

With assistance from the park’s Chief Naturalist, Edwin McKee, Colter had all the stones gathered or cut from the canyon walls and brought up by pack mules for her project. Today’s visitors can be thankful for Colter’s perfectionism and attention to detail, qualities that are showcased in this historic, scientifically accurate, and powerful re-creation of the Grand Canyon’s natural environment—in this unique fireplace.

The first accommodation here was established in 1896 by Mr. James Thurber at the head of the Bright Angel Trail leading into the canyon. A stagecoach line to this new location began that year with the building of a small wood-frame hotel. At about the same time, Buckey O’Neill built his cabin nearby, calling it O’Neill’s Camp. Thurber acquired the cabin when O’Neill died in Cuba during the Spanish American War. Thurber expanded the operation with a tent camp for tourists. He called it the Bright Angel Hotel.

Thurber sold the Bright Angel to Arizona hotelier Martin Buggeln in 1905, just as the Grand Canyon Railroad was extended to the South Rim. The El Tovar Hotel was being built immediately to the east of the Bright Angel Hotel. The railroad renovated the older hotel and built cabins to replace the tents. In contrast to the lodgings at the El Tovar, which were marketed as a destination hotel, the Bright Angel facilities were aimed to be quite popular.

By the 1930s the Bright Angel operation needed renovation. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, which owned the Grand Canyon Railroad and the South Rim concessions, asked architect Mary Colter to design a replacement. Colter’s initial designs resembled her Hermit’s Rest and Lookout Studio structures, both located nearby. The Park Service did not approve of such extensive use of stone for the new lodgings, so Colter revised the design to wood-frame construction. She kept the O’Neill Cabin and the Red Horse Cabin and replaced the tent cabins with new rustic cabins of log and local stone construction, completed in 1935. Colter took particular pains to integrate the new complex into the landscape, using a scale model to study the design.

The lodge is a large structure with a simple shallow-pitched gable roof. The roof overhangs at the main entry to form a gabled porch. The semi-detached cabins are laid out in the space between the lodge and the canyon’s rim, with some directly overlooking the canyon. Cabins were furnished with antiques and reproductions hand-picked by Colter.

The Bright Angel History Room presents information on the Harvey Girls, the Harvey Indian Detour Couriers, and various historic items.

Colter kept the Buckey O’Neill cabin built in 1890 because it was the oldest extant building at Grand Canyon. Buckey had been an author, sheriff, judge, and one of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.

Dining can be found at the Bright Angel Fountain and the Fred Harvey Burger Restaurant, the Arizona Steakhouse, El Tovar Hotel, food court or food truck. The lodge’s cocktail lounge features murals by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.

FRED HARVEY RECIPES

Dating a new man is like holding a strawberry milkshake; first the taste, then the pleasure.

Actress Marilyn Monroe

Hot Strawberry Sunday

1 pt. strawberries, cut in half

4 T. Jamaica rum

4 T. lemon juice

Rind of 1 orange, cut in strips

¼ c. strained honey

Marinate strawberries in rum for one hour. Bring honey, lemon juice, and orange peel to a boil; remove orange rind and combine flavored honey with strawberries. Serve over ice cream immediately. Yield: about 2 ¼ cups.

Note: Chef Joe Maciel attended the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934 and was served a strawberry sundae made with hot maple syrup and strawberries and that gave him the idea for this treat.

In the world of mules, there are no rules.

Ogden Nash

Mules

The Arizona Steakhouse has some specialty drinks called mules in honor of the mules which carry people down the trails. Examples of some mules are:

1. Western Son Vodka, Goslings Ginger Beer, Lime Shriveled Apple Mule

2. Jack Daniels Apple, Martinelli’s Apple Cider, Ginger Beer, Lime Garden Mule

3. Cucumber and Blueberry Vodkas, Ginger Beer, Lemon Kentucky Mule

4. Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Ginger Beer, and Lime.

Because you don’t live near a bakery doesn’t mean you have to go without cheesecake.

Actress Hedy Lamarr

Cheesecake

2 c. fine graham cracker crumbs

1½ c. sugar

½ c. melted butter

1½ tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. cream

4 eggs

1½ lbs. dry, small curd cottage cheese

2 T. all-purpose flour

2 T. cornstarch

1/8 tsp. salt

2 tsp. grated lemon peel

Topping:

1 egg white, beaten stiff

2 T. sugar

½ c. sour cream

Mix crumbs with ½ c. sugar and the melted butter; reserve ¼ c. crumbs for topping. Press remaining crumbs into a 9-inch spring form pan, lining bottom and sides. Build up sides to 1¼ inch height. Beat eggs with remaining 1 c. sugar until light. Add flour, cornstarch, salt, lemon peel, lemon juice, vanilla, cream, and cottage cheese. Beat thoroughly. Pour into crumb-lined pan, sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool in pan. Remove from pan and top with mixture made by combining beaten egg white, sugar, and sour cream.

Note: This recipe by Fred Harvey’s chef Henry C. Hoch, became changed a bit by the time it reached the Arizona Steakhouse where it is called New York Cheesecake.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Bright Angel Lodge is a one-star hotel and has 90 lodging units ranging from cozy historic units with shared bathrooms to standard lodge rooms and historic cabins such as Buckey O’Neill’s Cabin. Some cabins have TV and private bath, and some have no TV and a shared bathroom. All rooms have telephone, coffeemaker, and refrigerator. Most rooms have only one bed.

There is no charge for parking but there is a charge for entrance fee to the Grand Canyon Village area. There is no air conditioning in these rooms because the elevation makes for cooler temperatures. Rates begin at around $130 and go up depending on more amenities.

Bright Angel Lodge

Grand Canyon Village

Arizona 86023

1 [phone]

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CHAPTER 2

EL TOVAR IN GRAND CANYON VILLAGE

An old small hotel is much more valuable than a seven-star hotel because the former has a spirit and a literary posture!

Turkish playwright Mehmet Muratildan

HISTORY

HISTORIC NOTE: THIS hotel opened its doors in 1905, a former Harvey House. It has a presidential suite, art work, tours, ghosts, memorabilia, and movies were made here. It has been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2012.

The history of the Grand Canyon area probably began when conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado sought the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in September 1540. Coronado sent Pedro de Tovar with a party of Spanish soldiers with Hopi guides to the Grand Canyon, hence the name given to the hotel.

In 1776, two Spanish priests, Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Velez de Escalante traveled along the north rim and could not reach the Colorado River below. In 1826, American trappers led by James Ohio Pattie reached the canyon but there was no description of their findings. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 ceded the Grand Canyon to the United States, and Jules Marcou of the Pacific Railroad made the first geological observations of the canyon in 1856.

Jacob Hamblin, a Mormon missionary, was sent by Brigham Young in the 1850s to locate easy river crossing sites in the canyon. Brigham Young wanted to expand the Mormon settlements from Utah into Arizona. Hamblin built good relations with Native Americans and white settlers and discovered Lee’s Ferry in 1858 and Harrison Pierce Ferry about the same time. Those were the only two sites suitable for ferry operation across the Colorado River.

In 1857, Edward Fitzgerald Beale led an expedition to survey a wagon road from Fort Defiance, Arizona, to the Colorado River. They viewed the canyon from above and Beale would later be essential in creating a camel road across Arizona so that railroads could be built by camels carrying heavier equipment than burros could carry.

U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell led an 1869 geographic expedition through the Canyon on the Colorado River. Despite losing an arm in the Civil War, Powell and his men were able to traverse the rapids of the Colorado River, map the region, and describe its nature.

The first place anybody could stay on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon was Pete Berry’s Grand View Hotel. Along with the Cameron brothers, he developed a rustic three-story log cabin, dormitory, chicken farm, plant house, icehouse, barn, and residence some 11 miles from Canyon Village. From 1892 to 1940 people could stay there and Berry provided transportation to the railroad depot once it was built in